PRIEST STATION CAFÉ

Stunning views, good food on way to Yosemite

The entrance to the Historic Priest Station Café & Store showing the main store where tables for inside dining are available, and the outdoor area where visitors can dine while enjoying the stunnin...

ROSE ALBANO RISSO/The Bulletin

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WHAT: Priest Station Café

WHERE: 16756 Old Priest Grade where it meets Highway 120 heading to Yosemite, 45 miles from Oakdale

MENU: For complete menu of the café’s latest offerings as well as prices, log on to the Priest Station’s facebook page.

PHONE: (209) 962-1888.

HOURS: Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

DIRECTIONS: It is easy to get to Priest Station from Manteca. Simply take East Highway 120 and then, arriving at the Priest Road fork, take either the less steep and windy New Priest Road or the more challenging and picturesque Old Priest Road.

BIG OAK FLAT – There’s no pot of gold at the end of the climb up winding Old Priest Grade in Tuolumne County.

But at the top of this steep mountain-road section of Highway 120, there is a place called Priest Station, where you can stop for a spell and reward yourself with a refreshing drink and satisfying meal after completing the enjoyable – some would probably say, stomach-churning and dizzying – ascent, and do a little bit of souvenir shopping too.

Priest Station is a combination café and store which boasts hamburgers as “our specialty,” but it is actually much more than what it claims to be. The establishment, and the family that owns and runs it, is steeped in the rich history of this gateway to Yosemite National Park. Mountain-climbing fans and enthusiasts will also find a close affinity with the place. One of the business owners is Conrad Anker, the famed alpinist who co-authored the book, “The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Everest,” with fellow mountain climber, David Roberts. The book tells the story of how Anker found the body of mountain-climbing legend George Leigh Mallory near the summit of Mt. Everest. Mallory and climbing partner Andrew Irvine disappeared on June 8, 1924, and their fate remained a mystery until 1999 with Anker’s discovery.

The book about how the decades-long mystery that shrouded the fate of Mallory’s final ascent of Everest was finally lifted is proudly displayed inside the store-café and is available for purchase along with other historical and informational books about Big Oak Flat, Yosemite and surrounding areas in this mountain region. Once you are at Priest Station, you’re only 27 miles away from Yosemite National Park.

Next to Conrad Anker’s book is a framed cover of the National Geographic Magazine with the professional mountain climber’s photograph in full climbing gear.

While at the store and café, the man and woman working there – Denise and Steven – can answer any question you have about the world-renowned alpinist. This amiable pair is quite knowledgeable about Conrad Anker. He is, after all, their brother and part owner of Priest Station. If you’re lucky, you can also have a chat with their mother, Helga Anker, who is the hard-working genius behind the café’s many scrumptious gastronomical offerings.

“She does a lot of the cooking, and does all the baking for the restaurant. Like, today, we had a German dinner and she made the salad. Typically, she makes the soups and desserts,” said Denise, whose share in the family teamwork is doing all the bookkeeping, payroll and purchasing. She also creates the menu for the restaurant with her mother giving it her stamp of approval.

Steven is the daytime manager of the business, in addition to being the maintenance person.

“He’s a busy guy. Steven also runs our ranch. We have our ranch right next to the restaurant. My dad used to say it was the oldest ranch in Tuolumne County run by the same family,” Denise said.

Historic Priest Station Café and Store

In fact, the café and store’s décor includes several black-and-white photographs of Priest Station during different periods since it was established in 1849. One of the photographs shared by Denise Anker with the Manteca Bulletin showed a double-horse-drawn buggy in front of a building with the name, Priest’s Hotel, prominently displayed behind the people in the picture. Among them is a young girl in the center with twin long pigtails and a wide-brimmed straw hat resting atop her luxuriant hair. Underneath the girl is the pencil inscription, “Mary.” That girl “is my grandmother Margaret Corcoran – Anker later in life,” explained Denise in the information that accompanied the old family photographs. “The lady is my great-grandmother Jesse Corcoran,” she said of the well-dressed woman who is also wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and is pictured steadying the young boy on the saddle of one of the horses.

“The boy is Bob; not sure who that is,” Denise noted.

The picture was taken in 1914.

The second of the three photographs was taken in 1910. It shows a picture of just about the entire Priest’s Hotel. “My grandmother, great-grandmother and great-grandfather are all pictured,” Denise explained. They are among the 10 people standing in front of the hotel sign. Flanking them to the left and right of the photograph are two other people in single-horse-drawn buggies – the one on the left with four wheels and covered carriage pulled by a dark horse, and the one on the right with just two wheels and pulled by a white horse.

The third photograph shows Priest Station in the 1940s. This time, there are no horse-drawn buggies in the picture but an automobile next to the more modern building.

The buildings that were photographed in 1910 and 1914 both burned down in 1926, Denise said.

The building shown in the 1940s picture “lasted until the early 1980s” when it, too, burned down.

“Lots of fires in this area!” she commended.

Anker family bought Priest Station in 1853

The Anker family bought Priest Station in 1853. At that time, it was a miner supply store. Soon after that, Priest Station was turned into a hotel, a stage coach stop, restaurant, and blacksmith all rolled into one, Denise Anker said, relating the history of the property.

The property was then passed down through the family’s next generations, until 1970 when the Anker siblings’ grandfather decided to sell it.

“He wanted to retire. He didn’t want to take care of it anymore,” Denise said. She recalled that the sale of the property proved to be a difficult experience for their grandmother.

Their grandfather, Joe Anker, “kind of sold it against my grandmother’s wishes,” she said.

Her grandmother, Margaret, understandably was against the sale since she inherited it from her side of the family.

After Priest Station was sold, their grandparents moved to Sonora where they spent their retirement y ears.

But 37 years after Priest Station was sold, the historic property once again came into the ownership of the Anker family. All thanks to Wallace Anker, the late husband of Helga and father of siblings Conrad, Steven, and Denise.

“My father bought it back because he always wanted it, and because it was always my grandmother’s wish to return it to the family. He bought it back without specific plans (for Priest Station),” Denise recalled.

Wallace Anker worked in international banking. Because of the nature of his profession, the family moved a lot.

“We lived in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, and overseas in Europe and Asia,” Denise said.

“But this is where my family is from; this is where the family ranch business has been since the 1850s,” she said of their Big Oak Flat business holdings.

When the old property came into the hands of the family again in 2007, the “long process” of renovating it began. “Two to three years” later, Priest Station Store and Café reopened for business.

“We had the (two) cottages available in 2010. They were built in the 1940s and 1950s so they needed a lot of renovation,” Denise said.

The two cabins come with clean beds and restroom facilities. Each cabin has one room with an alcove.

Denise said they get a lot of drive-by traffic which brings in people who “just stop in” without reservations. But advance reservation is “always a good idea” particularly for a weekend visit when the tourism traffic is busy, she said. The winter rates are $69 on weekdays and $79 on weekends. Rates vary at different times of the year. During the spring season, which runs from April 15 to Memorial Day, and then in the fall, the rates will run from $99 to $119. The peak season in June, July and Aug. is the busiest time of the year, with premium rates for the cabins – from $139 to $159 a day. During the summer peak season, the cabins are “sold out every day,” Denise said.

All three of them – her brother Steven, and mother Helga – enjoy working together running the store and café. Even when they are busy, brother and sister will find time to sit down and chat with customers. And that’s just one of the things that Denise said she enjoys the most about the business.

“I love it. This is a people-business. You really never get sad when you’re always in contact with people. It’s good to be in a social kind of job,” she said.

“Another thing that I like is, I’m always on my feet. I’m 53 years old but I like being active. Sometimes being in a family business has challenges but, ultimately, it’s rewarding. It really brings the family together,” said Denise who now lives with her father after her father passed away in 2010.

She has fond memories of her father, who passed on his mountain-climbing genes to his son Conrad.

“He was a lifelong hiker and runner. He’s the one who instilled the love of the mountains in the family. He’d take us to the mountains from the time we were just babies, and we’d go to the high country, either on horseback or on foot. That was his passion,” Denise said, fondly reminiscing about their father.

Just how popular are Priest Station Café’s hamburgers and other menu offerings? The proof is in the pudding. Many residents of Groveland take the five-minute drive to the café for their famous hamburgers. It’s 45 miles from Oakdale along Highway 120.

For a complete menu of the café’s latest offerings as well as prices, log on to the Priest Station’s facebook page. Or, you can contact the Anker Family, Proprietors, by e-mail at prieststation@yahoo.com or by mail to: 16756 Old Priest Grade (or P.O. Box 455) Big Oak Flat, CA 95305 telephone (209) 962-1888.

The new expanded hours are Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

It is easy to get to Priest Station from Manteca. Simply take East Highway 120 and then, arriving at the Priest Road fork, take either the less steep and windy New Priest Road or the more challenging and picturesque Old Priest Road.

A further note about Priest Station restaurant co-owner and alpinist Conrad Anker – he will be visiting the family in June. During that visit, he will be appearing at Tioga High School on June 23 at 7 p.m. in Groveland to give a lecture series about the subject he is most familiar with. He will actually be giving a lecture series to help raise money to build a new wing of the local museum.

“He’s giving his (speaking) fee to them as a way to raise the money. He does this kind of thing a lot. In his lecture series, he will have slides and videos, and will give talks about Mt. Everest exploration, big-wall climbing, and extreme exploration,” Denise Anker said.

The family café and store also carries a DVD titled, “The Wildest Dream” which is a movie version – “loosely based on “The Lost Explorer” book,” she said. “My brother Conrad is in it. The movie tells the same story of Mallory” and how his long-lost body was found. The DVD is $19.99. The café also has autographed copies of the “The Lost Explorer” book which is about $20 to $25 hardback.